Lessons in Auctions: Before You Bid

Is this Adolf Kauffmann painting lovely...or not? Hard to tell from the initial picture,
but stay tuned...

So...I know I wrote that those of you who are new to buying at auction should never buy online, sight unseen, before you have gotten used to buying things from local auction houses, where you can see, measure and touch the item.

And I meant it, really, I did. One reason is because thumbnail pictures are, well...really small. It's hard get a sense of an item's texture and shading, let alone see its imperfections. And it's very, very hard to get a sense of scale (In fact, I'm going to devote an entire posting to scale next week, so stay tuned.)

However...

There are times when you know it's better to see the item up close and personal, but you can't get there, you just can't, and yet you're really interested in that item. You've got to have it...maybe. You hope. You can't quite tell from the photo. You just wish you could be a little more sure.


What's an auction addict to do?


Several things, actually, and, even when you get more proficient at online bidding, it's important to do all of them because, remember kiddos, auction items are not returnable! (That is, until you sell your items at auction, but that's another post, too.) So, without further ado...


Essential Steps Before You Bid

1. Condition Report - The first step is to read the condition report for the item. Some house, like Christie's, provide a link to it within the description. As a matter of fact, at Christie's you have to click to confirm that you've read the report before you can bid. (The sure sign of a pricey lawyer earning his new custom suit but never mind.)  Let's say, I'm interested in these chairs, in Christie's upcoming Interiors Sale...

Set of six Spanish polychrome chairs, estimate $3,000-5,000.

There is a link, right below the photo and description that says "Lot Condition Report". Click, and you'll pull up the report, which reads as so...

Pretty thorough, huh. That's what you want, of course. But what about auction houses that don't put the condition report right in the catalog? You can still get it,  you just need to email and ask for it. This is what I with the Kaufmann painting...

Page from Freeman's upcoming Fine American & European Paintings Sale
Note the link to request more information on the Invaluable page. 

 It pulled up a box, in which I wrote the following (note that the subject line,"Condition Report" was in Invaluable's drop down menu--a sure sign it's a frequent request):

A day later, I received the condition report and several additional photos from the art specialist at Freeman's. (Note: try not to ask the day before, or the day of, the sale, as they are too busy at that point.)

The condition report read as follows (excerpted from the email):

CONDITION:

Heavily re-lined.  Difficult to read under u.v., but several areas fluoresce which appears to be due to pigmentation.  Generally good to very good condition.

Okay, so the canvas has been relined, but the painting itself has not been retouched (that's what that u.v. stuff was about). It's not dirty, or it would have mentioned the grime. "Good to very good" means I probably don't have to get the painting restored or even cleaned right away.

So far, so good, now, onto the photos...

First, I received a high resolution picture, which allowed me to see the painting in much greater detail. This alone was extremely helpful because it contained a zoom feature that let me magnify whatever detail I wanted to, such as the central figures...

Much of the detail that I can now on my computer see does not translate here. At home, however, I  now have a much better feeling for the artist's brush strokes. On to the next photo...

The frame. Seeing a shot of the frame is very important for paintings, especially at this price point (estimate $1,500 -2,500) and under, because a good frame might end up costing you more than the painting! Thus, it is important to determine whether or not a new frame is necessary. Here, I feel that it would be. For me, this is a huge negative, that I'd have weigh when considering whether or not to bid.

The specialist sent me several more photos, aside from the two that I mentioned. I won't show them all here, but that's typical, I find. You might ask for a couple more and end up with six or eight. The upshot is, by the time you've read your condition report, you'll have a much clearer sense of whether or not you want to bid than you did before--and that's the whole point.

2. Research
So, pretend we've seen all these Kaufmann photos and we're still interested in bidding. Freeman's is a very good, old, trusted, auction house. Even so, before we bid, we'll want to do a bit of research regarding value of the piece.

If you are bidding on LiveAuctioneers, one very easy way of doing this is to run a search describing the item you like. In this example, I'd search "Aldolf Kaufmann," but you can do it with anything: "Dresden compote," for instance. It will pull up the "Live" matches, which should include the item you're researching (if it doesn't, you're obviously describing it wrong), but you want to click on the "Sold" tab.

The results are not shown here, but you can see that this search yielded over 250 results. That's going to generate some great comparable! Of course you'll need  to keep in mind the sales date. Did the item sell during a boom? Quite a while ago? Just be aware of what you're comparing.

You can do a similar search on the web, and on the websites of individual auction houses. But getting back to our painting of the cows, I'd take one more step in addition to looking in an auction database; I'd go to an art database. I use artnet, but there are many of them, all subscription based--I know, more money--but if you're in the market for paintings and sculpture, this is definitely money well spent.

On artnet, I learn a few things. First off, I see that the artist is indeed in the database. In fact, more than 100 lots of Kaufmann's work (the quantity in one unit of search) have been bought and sold at auction--a sign that he's well respected, or, at least, prolific and well collected. (Good to know because you might want to sell your painting at some point.) Now, I look at the prices. Again, dates matter so I keep the default search parameters and look at most recent lots first. Some people like to exclude the lots that didn't sell at auction (when that happens the result will say "bought in"), but I like seeing those; if the dude doesn't even fetch the minimum reserve most of the time, I want to know that. Size matters too, so I try to find canvasses that are approximately the same size and subject matter, such as this one...

This Adolf Kaufmann painting sold at auction in February of this year for ~$1,900.
The canvas is approximately the same size as the one up top. Comparable? I think so.

After looking in the artnet database, I conclude that Freeman's estimate is right on (and no surprise because some intern specialist probably went through this exact same process).

3. Missing Details
Auction houses should supply all the measurements right in the description. Sometimes they don't. Or sometimes they provide length and width but not height. Or sometimes it isn't even clear. Don't assume anything! If you want additional measurements, just write and request them. This holds for ring sizes, gem weights. If you'd feel better talking over the phone, then call and ask to speak to the specialist handling that specific sale.

That's all I've got for now. In a nutshell: the key step to take before you bid is to request more information. Auction specialists are a pretty nice bunch, as a rule, and are generally very responsive. In fact, they welcome your questions! (Think about it: throwing an auction is a bit like throwing a party; you send out the invites and then become paranoid that no one will show up.) A few words of advice: try not to badger them about very small ticket items, and, again, make your requests several days before the auction, and you should end up being very well informed...which is the first step to being very happy with your wins!